"Thomas Edison said in all seriousness: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the labor of thinking" - if we bother with facts at all, we hunt like bird dogs after the facts that bolster up what we already think - and ignore all the others! We want only the facts that justify our acts - the facts that fit in conveniently with our wishful thinking and justify our preconceived prejudices. As Andre Maurois put it: "Everything that is in agreement with our personal desires seems true. Everything that is not puts us into a rage." Is it any wonder, then, that we find it so hard to get at the answers to our problems? Wouldn't we have the same trouble trying to solve a second-grade arithmetic problem, if we went ahead on the assumption that two plus two equals five? Yet there are a lot of people in this world who make life a hell for themselves and others by insisting that two plus two equals five- or maybe five hundred!"
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – "The press is reporting this morning that the foot is finally making contact with the can. Here’s Bloomberg: "Senate Closes in on Deal to Pull US Back From Brink of Default." Is that great news, or what? The spending, borrowing, printing, bribing, squandering, corrupting, twisting, distorting, cheating, fouling, and destroying can go on. Hallelujah.
And this week, we’ve been looking at the effect this program has on investors – university endowments, for example. America’s leading colleges are probably the least curious institutions in the country. They are convinced that they have The Truth – diversity, anti-racism, climate control, equality… and ESG (environmental, social, corporate governance) investing. No need to look any further. And so, when their own endowments earn preposterous returns, no one asks any questions.
Or, if… in a fit of admiration… Duke alumni dare to wonder: “Uh… how did you make 10 times more than GDP growth?”… they get the anodyne answers: “Super-smart managers… and alternative investments.” Not quite.
No Genius: As we reported yesterday, Duke was an outlier in 2021, with a 56% return… while the economy is growing at about 5%. On average, university endowments didn’t earn 10 times more than GDP growth… only about half that much. And not with “alternative” investments or genius managers. Here’s the lowdown from InsideHigherED: "College and university endowments posted their strongest annual performance in 35 years, according to new data from Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service reported by Bloomberg.
The median return before fees was 27 percent in the 2021 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. By comparison, U.S. college and university endowments saw a 2.6 percent median return in fiscal year 2020 and a 6 percent median return in fiscal year 2019. College endowments of at least $500 million – of which there are about 200 – reported a median return of 34 percent in fiscal 2021, higher than the overall average."
There’s no reason to think college endowments will be any better than anyone else at choosing the year’s hot sector or hot stock. And they are so large, they are very unlikely to outperform… as a group.
The Nasdaq rose from 9,875 at the end of June 2020 to 14,500 at the end of June 2021 (a fiscal year for the endowments). That’s a 47% increase, considerably more than the median endowment fund return of 27%. The Dow, meanwhile, went from 25,600 to 34,300. That’s a 34% increase. And the S&P 500 went from 3,050 to 4,300 – a 40% increase. In other words, with a median gain of 27%, the endowment managers underperformed. No “alternatives” or geniuses were needed.
Rigged Game: But wait… This is where it gets interesting. How could the entire capital market grow so much faster than the economy that supports it? In a healthy economy, one company may do better… another may do worse. But one’s sales are another’s profits. One’s costs are another’s revenues. One month may be strong. Another may be weak. Profits may accumulate in a boom year… but dissipate in the next bust. Overall, they can’t do much better than the economy itself – because they are the economy.
Let’s say we have a banana stand. And let’s say we make a profit of $1,000 a year. We could sell our banana stand to someone for… say… $10,000. The buyer would be getting it at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 10. Very reasonable. And he could expect to get a 10% annual return on his investment. The next year, he might see his returns go up to $1,050 – a 5% increase. Then, he could expect to sell the enterprise to someone else for, maybe, $10,500 – a 5% increase. Not a 30% increase.
So, if these endowment funds were investing in America’s capital structure… in the banana stands that produce goods and provide services… they should expect growth equal to GDP… and no more. And yet, last year, they and other investors did at least five times better.
The question won’t be raised at meetings of university endowment boards… nor in the U.S. Treasury Department… nor at the Federal Reserve… nor in the financial press. So we’ll raise it here: How come? And here we propose an answer: They are not really “investing” at all. They are just gambling… “taking” not “making,” in a zero-sum game… and counting on the Fed to rig it for them.
Who’s the Loser? But this hypothesis only introduces more puzzlement. If they are winning so much… who is losing? Who’s on the other side of the trade? Obviously, they can’t be taking their winnings from each other, because we’re talking about the median return for the whole group. And the economy itself didn’t produce the extra wealth; it grew only by about 5%, while the funds added 27%.
So who’s the pigeon? And wait a cotton-pickin’ minute. Aren’t these the same universities that are committed to ESG – environmental, social, corporate governance – and are willing to sacrifice some investment returns in order to promote their political agenda? And now, they’re gaining wealth five times faster than the common working man’s wage increases.
Oh dear, Dear Reader… have you jumped ahead of us again? Is it possible that they are taking the money from the downtrodden masses, making fools of the very people they pretend to care so much about? Let’s look at it tomorrow and try to figure out what is going on."
"Global corporations didn't go to all the effort to establish quasi-monopolies and cartels for our convenience - they did it to ensure reliably large profits from control and scarcity. Not all scarcities are artificial, i.e. the result of cartels limiting supply to keep prices high; many scarcities are real, and many of these scarcities can be traced back to the stripping out of redundancy/multiple suppliers of industrial essentials to streamline efficiency and eliminate competition.
Recall that competition and abundance are anathema to profits. Wide open competition and structural abundance are the least conducive setting for generating reliably ample profits, while quasi-monopolies and cartels that control scarce supplies are the ideal profit-generating machines.
The incentives to expand the number of suppliers, i.e. increase competition, are effectively zero. America's corporations spent $11 trillion buying back their own stocks over the past decade; that's equal to the combined GDP of Japan, Germany and Italy. If adding new suppliers to the global supply chain were profitable, some of that $11 trillion would have exploited those vast profits.
The financial reality is attempting to compete with an established cartel that has captured regulatory and political mechanisms is a foolhardy waste of capital. If firing up a new supplier of essential solvents, etc. was so captivatingly profitable, the why wouldn't Google and Apple take a slice of their billions in cash and go make some easy money?
The barriers to entry are high and the markets are limited. A great many specialty lubricants, solvents, alloys, wires, etc. are essential to the manufacture of all the consumer and industrial products that are sourced globally, but the markets are narrow: manufacturers need X amount of a specialty solvent, not 10X.
Back in the good old days before globalization and financialization conquered the world, corporations lined up three reliable suppliers for every critical component, as this redundancy alleviated supply chain chokeholds. But to keep those three suppliers in business, you need to spread the order book among all three. Nobody will keep a facility open if it's only used occasionally when the primary supplier runs into a spot of bother.
And so now we're all seated at the banquet of consequences flowing from stripping out redundancy and competition, and ceding control of supply chains to quasi-monopolies and cartels. Scarcities are their source of profits, and since it makes zero financial sense to spend a fortune building a plant to make solvents, lubricants, alloys, etc. in limited quantities in markets dominated by quasi-monopolies and cartels, shortages are a permanent feature of the 21st century global economy.
The era of abundance was only a short-lived artifact of the initial boost phase of globalization and financialization; now that the consolidation is complete, shortages make fantastic financial sense.
By all means thank Corporate America for squandering $11 trillion to further enrich the top 0.1% and insiders. Alas, there was no better use for all those trillions than further enriching the already-super-rich."
"There are constant challenges in business and our economy. Are you ready for what is coming? Now is the time to be prepared TARIg it’s better to be ready than to have to get ready."
"Where do the dark streams of dust in the Orion Nebula originate? This part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, M43, is the often imaged but rarely mentioned neighbor of the more famous M42. M42, seen in part to the upper right, includes many bright stars from the Trapezium star cluster.
Click image for larger size.
M43 is itself a star forming region that displays intricately-laced streams of dark dust - although it is really composed mostly of glowing hydrogen gas. The entire Orion field is located about 1600 light years away. Opaque to visible light, the picturesque dark dust is created in the outer atmosphere of massive cool stars and expelled by strong outer winds of protons and electrons."
"The eternal silence of infinite spaces frightens me. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time have been ascribed to me? We travel in a vast sphere, always drifting in the uncertain, pulled from one side to another. Whenever we find a fixed point to attach and to fasten ourselves, it shifts and leaves us; and if we follow it, it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Nothing stays for us. This is our natural condition, most contrary to our inclination; we burn with desires to find solid ground and an ultimate and solid foundation for building a tower reaching to the Infinite. But always these bases crack, and the earth obstinately opens up into abysses. We are infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, since the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from us in an encapsulated secret; we are equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which we were made, and the Infinite in which we are swallowed up."
“I know you’re reading this. And I want you to know I’m writing this for you. Others will be confused. They will think I’m writing this for them. But I’m not. This one’s for you.
I want you to know that life is not easy. Every day is an unpredictable challenge. Some days it can be difficult to simply get out of bed in the morning. To face reality and put on that smile. But I want you to know, your smile has kept me going on more days than I can count. Never forget that, even through the toughest times, you are incredible. You really are. So smile more often. You have so many reasons to. Time and again, my reason is you.
You won’t always be perfect. Neither will I. Because nobody is perfect, and nobody deserves to be perfect. Nobody has it easy, everybody has issues. You will never know exactly what I’m going through. And I will never know exactly what you’re going through. We are all fighting our own unique war. But we are fighting through it simultaneously, together.
Whenever somebody discredits you, and tells you that you can’t do something, keep in mind that they are speaking from within the boundaries of their own limitations. Ignore them. Don’t give in. In this crazy world that’s trying to make you like everyone else, find the courage to keep being your awesome self. And when they laugh at you for being different, laugh back at them for being the same.
Remember, our courage doesn’t always roar aloud. Sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day whispering, “I will try again tomorrow.” So stand strong. Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out. And I am committed to making the best of it along with you.”
"Grocery stores across the US are now suffering with depleted inventories and empty shelves as they experience the worst supply chain crisis in decades. But the mainstream media coverage of this issue isn't telling us the whole truth. They're trying to convince us that what we have been witnessing at the stores recently is just a 'temporary' disruption that can be easily fixed and that will soon be gone. However, that's not what industry experts have been saying. In recent weeks, many of them came forward to warn that shortages and supply chain bottlenecks are likely to intensify as the holiday shopping season approaches.
With that in mind, today, we decided to expose what is really behind the shortages at our local supermarkets. In a recent article, writer and economic analyst Michael Snyder published an e-mail he received from an industry insider who told his side of the story. The source, who runs a grocery store in Maine, highlights that things are going from bad to worse. In fact, he even stressed that he has never seen "anything close to what is happening now”. Some of the information he shared is truly alarming and we should all spare a moment to hear it. "Supply issues are real!," he says. "My supplier has limited us on orders for about a month now - limiting the physical number of cases we can order".
His supplier's biggest issue is the unprecedented worker shortage in their warehouse. They're extremely short in order pickers and truck drivers. But it's the same story everywhere. All suppliers are experiencing similar difficulties to find new employees. As a consequence, many everyday items, such as energy drinks, soft drinks, bottled water, juices, fresh produce, and cleaning products are in short supply, he revealed. The quality of the fruits and vegetables arriving at his store is declining. In contrast, his meat supply was still "fair" at the time he wrote the e-mail, but pricing was extremely high. "Shockingly high to me. The middle class is slowly being destroyed with these prices hikes," the insider wrote.
"It’s frustrating. I'm self-employed for 25 years and worked for Kroger for 25 years before that, so I'm in this business for 50-51 years and have never seen anything close to what is happening now. I come to work every day just holding my breath for what is next for our business and the 35 people I employ here in Maine," the source concludes. Even though this grocery store owner has tried to order smaller quantities, his suppliers are still unable to fulfill them.
The situation he's going through is the same one faced by millions of small business owners all around the country. But even big grocery chains are struggling with delivery delays, dwindling inventories, and a shortage of workers. At this moment, supply shortages are widespread, and this is the worst that they have been since the onset of the health crisis. Sadly, what industry specialists have been telling us is that this is going to become the “new normal”.
At the same time, the extraordinary rise in food prices is becoming a threat for low-income households, who are having to spend a larger share of their monthly budgets just to have enough to eat on their tables. Meat prices are skyrocketing, and they have been rising faster than most other grocery prices. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs are currently up 5.9 percent compared to last year, and over 15 percent higher than 2019 prices. We are now being told to brace ourselves for more price spikes in the coming months. Sysco, one of the nation’s biggest food distributors, reported food inflation levels of 10.2 percent on its most recent quarterly report, all of those increases are being passed along to customers in turn.
On the other hand, as shortages become more extensive, retailers have started to reimplement limits. Last Thursday, Costco said it was reinstating "limits on purchases of toilet paper, paper towels, and bottled water". Although they don't call it “rationing”, that is essentially what it is. Joining a long list of retailers, Costco is sounding the alarm about climbing shipping prices and worsening supply chain issues.
All things considered, it's safe to say that neither inflation nor shortages are going to be "temporary". At the beginning of the year, many were expecting the economy to be booming at this point, but instead what we have is huge price hikes and very painful shortages that are likely to persist for another year or two. Our economic infrastructure is being shaken to the core as events have begun to slide out of control. Beware of the next events because it won't take too much for us to be facing a full-blown avalanche."
"Were all the geniuses of history to focus on this single theme, they could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness of the human mind. No person hands out their money to passersby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We're tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers." - Seneca
Born with a chronic illness that loomed large throughout his life, Seneca was constantly thinking about and writing about the final act of life. "Let us prepare our minds as if we'd come to the very end of life," he said. "Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life's books each day. The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time."
Most interestingly, he quibbled with the idea that death was something that lay ahead of us in the uncertain future. "This is our big mistake," Seneca wrote, "to think we look forward to death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death." That was Seneca's great insight - that we are dying every day and no day, once dead, can be revived.
So we should listen to the command that Marcus gave himself. He wrote,"Concentrate every minute like a Roman on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions." The key to this kind of concentration? "Do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life."
That's the power of Memento Mori - of meditating on your mortality. It isn't about being morbid or making you scared. It's about giving you power. It's to inspire, to motivate, to clarify, to concentrate like a Roman on the thing in front of you. Because it may well be the last thing you do in your life.
The Stoics were philosophers, but more than that they were doers. They didn't have room for big words or big ideas, just stuff that made you better right here, right now. As Marcus Aurelius said: "Justice, honesty, self-control, courage, don't make room for anything but it - for anything that might lead you astray, tempt you off the road, and leave you unable to devote yourself completely to achieving the goodness that is uniquely yours."
"The Trends Journal is a weekly magazine analyzing global current events forming future trends. Our mission is to present Facts and Truth over fear and propaganda to help subscribers prepare for What’s Next in these increasingly turbulent times."
"If you feel like global events are about to hit a dramatic turning point, you are definitely not alone. Lately, I have been hearing from so many people that are feeling such a sense of dread about the days that are ahead of us. It kinds of reminds me of the waning days of 2019. If you go back and review my articles and my interviews from that period, you will see that I repeatedly warned that I had such a bad feeling about 2020. At the time, that didn’t make a lot of sense to some people, because life was still relatively normal. But then the COVID pandemic came along and the world went completely nuts. Well, now I am sensing another huge wave of trouble, and countless others are feeling the exact same way.
Normally, I tend to focus my articles on things that just happened in the news. But today I want to talk about the bigger picture because we have reached such a dangerous time in our history. The events of the past couple of years have put us on a very alarming trajectory, and I believe that we are rapidly approaching a point of no return.
There are still a lot of people out there that believe that some sort of a magic solution will suddenly be found and life will revert to normal. Sadly, that isn’t going to happen. Nobody has a “silver bullet”, and men on white horses are not going to come riding in to save us.
At this moment, the stage is being set for so many of the things that I warned about in "Lost Prophecies" and "7 Year Apocalypse." Great natural disasters are occurring all over the planet, extreme weather events are playing havoc with worldwide crop production, global hunger is on the rise, we are facing a supply chain crisis of epic proportions, and I have written numerous articles in recent weeks about the growing shortages that we are witnessing.
Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to rage on, and now we are being told that this virus will be with us indefinitely. Of course many believe that how national governments have responded to the pandemic has been even worse than the pandemic itself. We are seeing civil unrest and mass protests all over the globe as ordinary citizens lash out against the alarming rise of authoritarianism all around us. We have seen so much chaos and death over the past couple of years, and there will be so much more in the years ahead. Millions upon millions of people have already died, but what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg.
As I discussed a few days ago, this is also a time of wars and rumors of wars. Needless to say, military conflict will take many of our current problems to an entirely new level. Sadly, most Americans have absolutely no idea that we are moving toward war even now.
But most Americans can see the product shortages that are growing all around us. At this point, the supply chain crisis has gotten so bad that the mainstream media can’t stop talking about it. On a very basic level, our economic infrastructure is breaking down, and this is something that is happening all over the world.
Originally we were told that things would be “getting back to normal” by this point, but now we are being told that the shortages are going to be getting even worse in the months ahead. Earlier today, I came across a video in which Glenn Beck detailed why he is extremely concerned about this. I think that Glenn did a really good job of communicating the urgency of the crisis that we are now facing, and I hope that people will share his video with as many people as they can.
There are some that have used the word “hell” to describe the past couple of years, but the truth is that they aren’t even worth comparing to what is still ahead of us.But no matter what comes along, you can get through this.
I have heard from so many people that are scared about what is to come, and it is okay to be honest about our emotions. If you truly understand the bigger picture, the gravity of what we are dealing with will definitely weigh on you. But there is no reason to be afraid. You were born for such a time as this, and you were placed at this specific moment in human history for a reason.
Since I write about such difficult topics, some people out there have suggested that I must be deeply depressed. But the truth is that my wife and I are not depressed at all. We are not on any pills, we don’t have to see any psychologists and we don’t walk around in a state of gloom all the time.
That is because we know who we are, we know where we are going and we understand how the story ends. All of human history has been building up to a grand crescendo, and we get to be here for it. There is no other time in all of human history that I would have rather lived than right here, right now.
But if your life is defined by the system that the elite have established, and if what you care about are the material possessions that the system has provided for you, then the years ahead are going to be exceedingly painful for you. Because the truth is that the system is dying.
Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and we are going to see horrors that are far beyond what most people would dare to imagine right now. But for those that are living for the things that really matter, this will be an incredibly exciting time to be alive.
If you have not been paying much attention to global events, now is the time for you to wake up. So many of the pieces of the puzzle are coming together simultaneously, and so many of the major things that the watchmen have been warning about are on the verge of taking place. I will have so much more to say about all of this in the days ahead. Be strong and keep the fire burning, because the times that are approaching are going to greatly challenge all of us."
"Sky-high prices for natural gas and electricity have made the headlines in recent weeks as energy crises started to erupt all over the world. The most menacing of them is taking place in China, where coal stocks hit perilously low levels. Chinese officials warned that China's energy crunch will have greater consequences for the global economy than other energy squeezes now occurring in Europe, South-Eastern Asia, and Africa.
Several Chinese regions have started to conserve energy and issue rationing mandates to factories, ordering plants to halt or significantly reduce production over the next weeks. At least two-thirds of the entire country faced severe blackouts last week as China struggled with the worst power shortages in over a decade. Just this year, energy prices have more than double in China due to soaring electricity demand from factories and lower than expected output from the country’s coal mines.
If China's economy slumps any further this year, the whole global economic rebound can be derailed, and that will lead to even higher inflation in global markets, warn economists. "China’s energy crunch is set to have a rippling effect across the world”, says Howie Lee, an economist at Singapore’s OCBC Bank. The outlook doesn't seem very promising, particularly considering that official government figures released last month indicate that that Chinese factory activity in September dropped to the lowest level since February 2020, when lockdowns crippled the economy.
The unexpected slowdown in factory activity will add further pressure on an economy already facing serious problems in its inflated property sector, mostly in the form of the decaying giant Evergrande. While the property sector accounts for up to 25% of China's GDP, the country's huge tech sector is also experiencing major disruptions as the power outages are forcing widespread factory shutdowns. At this point, shortages are already emerging and hitting stressed global supply chains, with both Apple and Tesla temporarily closed. Other small businesses that play a key role in global manufacturing are recording an output collapse like no other.
This crisis is coming at the worst possible time: just as businesses get ready for the Christmas shopping rush. This means that shortages will not only be seen in China but also on shelves in western countries, including America. Moreover, given the Vice Premier's order, China seems to have made an abrupt policy change regarding its commodity markets approach. Many local reports are stressing the fact that the central government has given state-owned energy companies a directive to secure winter energy supplies "at any and all costs".
However, with commodity inflation already soaring and straining large importers, supply shortages are becoming more and more frequent across the globe. The plan now is to hoard all available supplies no matter the cost, in order to support continued economic growth, particularly due to the threat of a cold winter scenario. This may turn the commodity market upside down. China's rigorous steps to ensure energy supplies are likely to trigger a panic buying spree just as we witnessed early in the health crisis, when consumers depleted inventories of toilet paper and other household items, and more recently, in the UK's ongoing supply chain crisis.
Therefore, "in addition to the speculative interest, the world’s biggest commodity importer is now going on a historic buying spree. As such, this buying is a strong tailwind for oil, as supply certainty trumps price in the near term," as explained by Ryan Fitzmaurice, the senior commodity strategist at Rabobank. Speculators have gigantic piles of money at hand to bid the market even higher, especially knowing that China has every motive to panic buy supplies and central banks have flushed extraordinary amounts of liquidity to fund huge purchases on global financial markets.
"This new policy has the potential to trigger panic buying in physical markets, which will likely spill over into financial markets as institutional money chases returns," Fitzmaurice wrote in a recent note to clients. Sadly, world leaders are just now realizing that, unlike artificially-created money, you cannot print commodities nor artificially create energy supplies. The rules are not the same. The commodity market is volatile and dangerous.
The lack of energy is a life-threatening issue, and that was conclusively demonstrated earlier this year during the Texas power grid collapse. As the price of energy skyrockets, those increased costs will fall disproportionately upon the poorest in society, and those devastating income inequalities will be dramatically exposed as the most millions have to face a painful choice: Heat or Eat.Don't be mistaken, this winter is going to be shocking. Dark clouds are looming on the horizon and the perfect storm is coming for us."
"Colorful NGC 1579 resembles the better known Trifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planet Earth's sky, in the heroic constellation Perseus. About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across, NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid, a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanes prominent in the nebula's central regions.
In both, dust reflects starlight to produce beautiful blue reflection nebulae. But unlike the Trifid, in NGC 1579 the reddish glow is not emission from clouds of glowing hydrogen gas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star. Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, and scatters the light from an embedded, extremely young, massive star, itself a strong emitter of the characteristic red hydrogen alpha light."
"How do you beat the odds when it’s one against a billion? You stand strong, keep pushing yourself past all rational limits and never let yourself give up. But the truth of the matter is, despite how hard you try and fight to stay in control, when it’s all said and done, sometimes you’re just outnumbered."
- "Dr. Meredith Grey," "Grey's Anatomy"
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"There are days that make the sacrifices seem worthwhile... and then there are the days where everything feels like a sacrifice. And then there are the sacrifices that you can't even figure out why you're making. A wise man once said, you can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it. What he meant it, nothing comes without a price. So before you go into battle, you better decide how much you're willing to lose. Too often, going after what feels good means letting go of what you know is right. And letting someone in means abandoning the walls you've spent a lifetime building. Of course, the toughest sacrifices are the ones we don't see coming. When we don't have time to come up with a strategy, to pick a side, or to measure the potential loss.When that happens, when the battle chooses us, that's when the sacrifice can turn out to be more than we can bear."
“What keeps you going isn’t some fine destination but just the road you’re on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, ‘What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?’”
“The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.”
– Strauss & Howe, “The Fourth Turning”
“In Part One of this article I laid out the reasons for Gray Champions arising to meet challenges during crisis periods in history. In Part Two of this article I assessed the configuration of Gray Champions throughout the world and the potential impact on the course of this Fourth Turning.
The swirling fog of confusion enveloping the globe as the high lords of the universe play their game of thrones has even the most critical thinking individuals baffled by the course of events. The desperation and blatant lawlessness of the Deep State players in their endeavor to preserve their hegemony over the course of global affairs is palpable with every attack, false flag, accusation, and ratcheting up of their propaganda media machine.
Like “Game of Thrones,” the behind the scenes machinations, subterfuge, and deceptions taking place outside the purview of the common folk are designed to only benefit the rich and powerful players undertaking these traitorous actions. Open warfare will not happen until it is thought to be in the best interests of those manipulating the levers of society and the narrative produced by their perpetual propaganda media machine. But, in the end, it will be the innocent common people who will suffer the consequences, while the lords reap the riches, glory and power.
“Why is it always the innocents who suffer most,
when you high lords play your game of thrones?”
– “Lord Varys”,
- George R.R. Martin, “Game of Thrones”
The common people have always been blind to the next turning until after it fully arrives. Even now, the average person has no idea we are in the midst of a crisis period which will change the course of history. The overwhelming majority of the 335 million Americans, and billions around the globe, try to go about their daily lives oblivious to the intrigues, conspiracies, and treachery playing out at the highest levels of government and in smoky backrooms, where deals are made, wars plotted, and billions dispersed to the oligarchical lords running our world.
The common people get up, go to work, try to earn enough to survive or get ahead in life, raise their children, and endeavor to attain the lifestyle sold to them by their overlords based on delusion and debt. They are easily distracted by technological baubles, watching sporting events, enslaved by government handouts, and told what to believe by their keepers. They don’t want to experience the challenges of winter, but a never ending summer. They don’t want to think and be responsible for their lives. They want to be left in peace on Twitter and Facebook, but that isn’t how it works during a Fourth Turning winter.
“The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends,” Ser Jorah told her. “It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace.” He gave a shrug. “They never are.”
– George R.R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones”
There is no telling how the next ten or so years will play out; which alliances prove to be successful or disastrous, and the outcomes of the fast approaching civil and global wars, which are inevitable given the current state of affairs in the world. The Fourth Turning isn’t a prediction. It’s a period of crisis driven by the generational alignment which happens like clockwork every 80 to 100 years. It predicts nothing. The course of events is up to the individuals driving those events.
Those who attempt to dismiss this generational theory by calling it doom porn or saying it is impossible to predict the future are revealing their fears rather than arguing based on facts or substance. A man who fears the coming trials and tribulations has already lost. Fear works far better than swords in keeping the masses controlled. Take the Russian bogeyman scenario utilized to keep the ignorant masses distracted and bemused. Praying for a lone wolf to save the day and restore the world to its summer like condition is irrational and again based upon fear. Winter winds are already blowing at gale force.
“When the snows fall and the white winds blow,
the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.”
– “Ned Stark”,
– George R.R. Martin, “Game of Thrones”
It’s fear that appears to be pushing people over the edge. The common people are being manipulated by the “powers that be” though propaganda, mistruths, distractions, iGadgets, hero worship, irrelevant social justice warrior issues, the illusion of political choices, and being lured into debt servitude by the banking cabal and their mega-corporation co-conspirators. They have successfully divided us into angry subsets of lone wolves unwilling or unable to unite and fight the true enemies.
The common people will again do the dying and get the short end of the stick, just as they did during the Civil War, Great Depression and World War II. In order to change the dynamics of this Fourth Turning from one where the lords determine our fate, it would require the majority to open their eyes to see the truth and be led by truly just men to overcome the forces of darkness currently in control. Based on history, this is an unlikely scenario, but still possible.
“Opening your eyes is all that is needing. The heart lies and
the head plays tricks with us, but the eyes see true.”
– “Syrio Forel”,
– George R.R. Martin, “Game of Thrones”
While Biden, Putin, and Xi play their game of thrones for world dominance, we the people still have to do our part at this crucial time in history. While the vast majority of Americans may not be intellectually capable of independent thought or critical thinking due to decades of dumbing down through the government education gulags and a steady diet of government propaganda, there are a minority of patriotic people who respect the Constitution and will need to man the wall.
We know the existing social order will be demolished by the end of this Fourth Turning and courageous acts will matter, sacrifice required, and defeating enemies from within and without will be compulsory. There will be no glory for common men who make the ultimate sacrifice and die for a better tomorrow for their children and grandchildren. Everyone has the potential to make a difference. Danger is omnipresent.
“I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.”
– The Oath of the Brothers of the Night’s Watch
– “Game of Thrones”
You don’t have to be a fan of the ‘Game of Thrones’ or a believer in the Fourth Turning to realize the world is in the midst of a crisis. Denial and willful ignorance will not turn back time to better days. Whether it be a fictional battle for control of the seven kingdoms or a real battle for control of petro-currencies, gas pipelines, natural resources, and military dominance, the humans locked in these battles never change.
Human nature has remained the same throughout history. The shortcomings of men across centuries have remained consistent: greed, power seeking, arrogance, cruelty, immorality, and hubris.Even Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a man of true courage, knew “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being”.
The coming storms will bring out the best and the worst in humanity. The nation could be snuffed out or be elevated to new glorious heights. If good wins out over evil the heroic deeds of the winners will become the stuff of myths and legends. If evil wins out over good the final shocking scene in “The Planet of the Apes” may be our future. The choices we make will matter.
Full screen recommended.
The risk of catastrophe will be very high. The nation could erupt into insurrection or civil violence, crack up geographically, or succumb to authoritarian rule. If there is a war, it is likely to be one of maximum risk and effort – in other words, a total war…
History’s howling storms can bring out the worst and best in people. The next Fourth Turning can literally destroy us as a nation and people, leaving us cursed in the histories of those who endure and remember. Alternatively, it can ennoble our lives, elevate us as a community, and inspire acts of consummate heroism – deeds that will grow into myth-like legends recited by our heirs far into the future.”
